With the British forces in Iraq having officially ‘handed over‘ Basra Province yesterday, the debate over whether we jumped or were pushed out has resurfaced. This graph tends to suggest that there were, at the least, compelling tactical reasons to leave, independent of any ‘progress’ on the ground.

The links above come from a site originally set up as the London Friends of Craig Murray blog. This site, set up by a group of, err.., friends in London, supported Craig’s election campaign in Blackburn back in 2005. This year it has morphed in to a dedicated casualty monitoring project, aiming to track the human cost of Blair’s wars to Iraqis, Afghans, and Britishforces.

3 thoughts on “The British Presence in Basra – Costs and Consequences?”

Unfortunately the occupation of Basra has been an almost complete failure. The soldiers that have been killed and wounded have died for nothing. It is a national scandal. That Tony Blair is supposedly earning £1,000,000 a month on the lecture circuit is an insult to the memory of both our own and the Iraqi dead. Blair prostituted the trust the ordinary soldier put in him. Like a brothel owner he pimped and sold young soldiers to George Bush for his own advancement. It was shameful and debasing, and he got away free. Other people lose everything they love and cherish, and Blair is allowed to earn millions whilst he's got blood up to his elbows.

What astounds me is the casual use of the words "Al-Qa'idah" by the Basra police chief – he tells of women soldiers in the new Iraqi army: "They engaged in confrontations with the women of Al-Qa'idah …" Seems al-Qaida is simply everywhere.

The women police's job descriptions:

"… administrative and financial work and the searching and inspection of women, namely during religious celebrations held in sacred locations".